Thread: Japanese blacksmith made scissors

Thanks Clinton, not that I have any thought of trying it myself mind! Such a simple bit of kit and so beautifully done. There is a lot of drawing out of the steel, comparing some of those early stages, and to get each side so balanced...skillful stuff.
On that basic design, being very similar in principle to wool shears, its a design that even in the West hasn't changed dramatically. I just had a book out of the library, something like "The Medieval Catalogue", full of drawings of everyday objects in museums in London from a thousand years ago (disappointing selection of woodwork tools, and passed it off with a comment that the rudimentary toolkit hasn't changed), and the shears/scissors are the same as those. My wife has a small pair in the sewing room, probably Japanese or Chinese, used for snipping thread.

Cheers mate, keep the photos coming.

Y'know, I had a pair of old hand forged shears I'd inherited from my gramps (which disappeared during one of my bro's forays in the shed ) but I never, ever gave a moment's thought to how they were actually made?

Seeing that pic, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been right even if I had thought about it.

Thanks for the pic, Clinton. Another chink of ignorance dispelled.

In the photo (and its clearer in the photo in the display on the left side) you can see the pieces of 'good steel' that are forge welded in to the bar to form the laminated cutting edge.

I didn't buy much, sensible items more than anything.... but could have gone mad getting wonderfully made tools. Good stuff.

Old blacksmiths shop from tokyo

Hi Clinton,
Looks more like a tea ceremony room! That wooden box next to the forge wall is the bellows I thnk. There should be a knob or handle to pull-push from the front.

Cheers,

I think you are right about the knob on the front, Andy.

The pic is of a blacksmiths shop from 'old tokyo', one of the little ones that used to fill one side of a house. The museum bought the shops up when blocks were being pulled down for development and erected the shops in the museum itself. All good stuff to see.

You could wander into the displays and get up close, so they probably took the bellow handle off to stop people using it and creating a lot of charcoal dust.

I like the chunk of railway-line anvil.
Very mediaeval!